Trust in the Future

Now that you've mastered trustmarks, graduate to lovemarks. Trustmarks come after brands; lovemarks come after trustmarks. I was totally shocked by the computer virus known as "the love bug." Most of us are on alert. Our information/process/nerd/defensive systems are deployed. Then we get an email that says, "I Love You," and what happens? We all say, "Somebody out there loves me! Who is it?" And bang! You're dead! What does that tell you? There is an incredible untapped need for love out there. And the question is, How do you capture that need as an advertiser or as a marketer?

When you look at most companies, it's clear that they're not in love with their own brands. I looked at how companies talk about their own brands, at the correspondence that marketers have sent to me, and they all talk about product performance and product superiority. They all use military language and warfare metaphors. Not one talks about love. They use bullshit words, and they qualify everything. They say that they "like" something. Everyone's afraid to say that they actually love something.

But think about how you make the most money. You make the most money when loyal users, heavy users, use your product all the time. That's where the money is. So having a long-term love affair is even better than having a trusting relationship. If I could get my brand to be either loved or trusted, which would I rather have? I'm bloody sure that you can charge a premium for brands that people love. And I'm also bloody sure that you can only have one lovemark in any category.

If you're not in love with your business, why should your employees or customers be? If you want to create a lovemark, you've got to be passionately in love with your own business. And if you haven't fallen in love, don't expect your employees or your customers to fall in love. Consumers can smell a fake from a mile off. The same goes for employees. What we should be doing today is letting our people loose to be the best that they can be. And for them to do that, they've got to love you. Most companies today are pressing the wrong buttons with their people. Employees aren't going to be motivated by bonuses or by performance incentives. They're going to get better and do better every day because they have given you their hearts, not just their minds. They have to love what you stand for -- and that's a big cultural change.

If you want to see where this change is happening, just go to the Internet. Because most current market-research tools are so completely useless, the Internet is the most explosive tool for developing products. Existing research tools measure what you do or what you say you're going to do. Focus groups get dominated by two or three leaders who take over. So they don't measure what matters: They don't measure what your customers feel. They're measuring respect; they're not measuring love.

The Internet is the most enabling tool to understand feelings that's ever been invented. On the Web, people tell you everything, because there's no threat, no intimidation, no pressure. It's one-on-one. It's private. There's no ego.

We're involving consumers on a test basis in product development. They download an idea for a product, and they respond straightaway. It used to take us a year to get that kind of feedback. Now it takes us 30 days. And we've completely reversed the process. We used to make something, test it, make some more, prototype it, test it some more -- and then, finally, at the back end, we'd ask consumers how they liked it. We were asking them at the wrong end! Now we ask them up front, and when the product finally does come out, it's already got word-of-mouth support. People feel that they're already connected to it.

The connection is, we love our customers. We want them to help us design our products. And if you love your customers, talk to them real early.

Being a lovemark means being willing to say you're sorry. Lovemarks accept the responsibility that goes along with being a lovemark. It's like a love affair. You have a responsibility to protect the integrity of that love affair. The question is, Will you still love me tomorrow? Love isn't a one-night stand. Love means that you're with me all the way. And it's all right to change, but both partners have to be full participants. When you're in love, you don't want anyone to mess with your lover.

When you're a lovemark, you're not allowed to fuck up. And if you do fuck up, you have to unfuck up real fast. It's just like your love affair with your wife. You've got to apologize before you turn out the lights. You don't want to go to sleep unhappy -- so don't turn out the light until you've made up. If you lose your status as a lovemark, you have to regain it immediately, and then make sure that you never lose it again.

Alan M. Webber (aWebber@fastcompany.com) is a Fast company founding editor. You can find Kevin Roberts on the Web (www.saatchikevin.com).